The Adhesive Properties of Dragon Scales
by Angela and MiniMix
Summary: /King Xehanort is not one to obey the whims of the universe. He intended to be king and no mysterious entity known as 'they' were going to stop him from reaching this goal; dragon or no dragon, he was going to be king. But the universe is not one to be disregarded for the whims of man./ In which Vanitas is a dragon, Xehanort is a Not-King and poor Aqua is kidnapped by a dragon.
1. In which Xehanort ignores the Universe

Okay, so it's been _aaaaaaaages_ since I uploaded/posted anything, woops. And this was supposed to be reposted ages ago, when it was still a Death Note fanfic, but I... Fell out of the DN fandom ficwise again, and as a result could _not_ make it work anymore. However, recently got into the Kingdom Hearts RP fandom on tumblr and (while making a ton of friends and a handful of _life long_ friends as a result) was inspried to try rewriting this fic as a KH one.

It's working much better this way. And far more humorous than the original version.

So, important notes: I don't know if there will be a pairing, as that's _not_ the main focus of this fic. The main focus here is, for the most part, "_How ridiculous can I make the story and still have it make sense and sound at least vaguely plausible?_" Therefore, the characters listed in the story info are _not the pairing_, they are only the characters we will see the most of i this story.

Disclaimers abound as per usual, I don't own yadda yadda. (But if you're selling Vanitas, I'm buying.)

* * *

They say that a kingdom without a dragon is not a kingdom at all.

Exactly who 'they' are and why they have any bearing on what it is that determines a real kingdom is a qestion no one has ever been able to answer to anyone's satisfaction. Regardless, they say it and thus it has become irrevokable fact: A kingdom without a dragon is not a kingdom at all.

And so it follows within this logic that the king of a kingdom that is not a kingdom is not truly a king.

Sadly, King Xehanort is not one to obey the whims of the universe. He intended to be king and no mysterious entity known as 'they' were going to stop him from reaching this goal; dragon or no dragon, he was going to be king. And thus it came to be that King Xehanort established himself a kingdom while ignoring the one fundemental truth of the universe.

And thus was born the Kingdom That Was Not A Kingdom and the King Who Was Not A King, Xehanort.

But the universe is not one to be disregarded for the whims of man.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Dragons, it must be said, are a rather curious breed of creature. A body as large and heavy as a full grown dragon should by all rights (and all laws of gravity and physics; yet like the King Who Was Not A King, dragons were prone to ignoring the fundemental truths of the universe) be completely unable to fly.

Some schools of thought claim the only thing _less_ aerodynamic than a dragon is a bumblebee; they tend to be ignored because as everyone can quite clearly see, both dragons and bees can fly. (And aerodynamics or not, both are ridiculously speedy for their size and shape; hitting either with a flyswatter requires reflexes faster than any one being has right to possess.)

Unlike the bumblebee however, dragons breathe fire.

Thus it became that man and dragon were at odds; dragons breathed fire and enjoyed their creature comforts of gold and pretty maidens, and men were flammable and did _not_ enjoy their gold and pretty maidens stolen from them.

So it was agreed that dragons and men would exist only with limited contact: because kingdoms can not be a kingdom without a dragon, one dragon would settle in among each kingdom and receive gold and jewels in exchange for not setting things on fire and stealing pretty maidens from their homes. The rest of the dragons would be left alone in their mountain caves and allowed to dig into the earth for gold and jewels as they pleased, rather than slain and left to rot.

And it was a working relationship, until the Kingdom That Was Not A Kingdom came into existence; and existence that, regretfully, rather upset the balance of many things. And because it was not an existing kingdom at the time of the agreement, it was dragonless and thus not a kingdom at all.

_Rightfully so_, said man, _because he's just an upstart boy and not worthy of a crown anyhow._

And so it went that not a single dragon was willing to take up his post in the Not-Kingdom that was Not-King Xehanort's domain, rendering the entire argument about it's kingdom status moot. _After all, if __**humans**__ are opposed to it being a kingdom—why then it must not be a kingdom at all_. _So we shan't go,_ they decided.

But the universe is not one to be disregarded for the whims of dragons, either.

* * *

Honestly this is just a prologue, more than anything. I'm off to do some editing and such to chapter two. This is going to be updated sporadically until I have enough done to comfortably post once or twice a week. _Please_ give me a kick in the pants if I don't update for more than a month guys.


	2. In which we meet our Players

Aaand chapter two. Aqua bit gave me a bit of trouble but... Well, worked it out, yeah? I'm leaning towards VanQua pairing for this, if any, but I still have no set pairings and character selections are still for main characters and not pairings. Excuse any tense switching as well guys. I've gotten used to writing in present tense from RPing. Present feels more natural to me now as a result so I keep slipping into it and either missing bits when I fix that, or else forgetting how past tense actually _works_ and being unsure how to fix it, haa.

Disclaimers abound as per usual, I don't own yadda yadda. (But if you're selling Vanitas, I'm buying.)

* * *

He'd been running for weeks now, trying to outrun the idiot knight and his oddly key shaped sword. Frankly, Vanitas had no idea what he'd done to annoy the knight.

Okay, so maybe it was accidentally setting that one village on fire, but he hadn't done it on purpose—he'd _sneezed_! Or maybe it was when he kidnapped that blonde maiden, but she'd _wanted_ him to kidnap her away from her ghastly husband so he couldn't see why that would be an issue. Or maybe the—okay, so maybe he had a few reasons to be annoyed at Vanitas, but it wasn't like most of them had been on purpose, and certainly not enough to validate slicing his wing to ribbons! Now how was he supposed to fly? (God forbid he end up stuck here in this desolate place, unable to get back to his perfect cave with his perfectly arranged shinies. This wasn't even a _real_ kingdom!)

A downed dragon, that's what he was. And a grounded dragon wasn't a dragon at all; no self-respecting dragon would be content with life on the ground when there were wide open skies just above his head, and Vanitas was the most self-respecting dragon he knew. (Some said he was arrogant, but he just scoffed at the notion. He simply had a larger than normal amount of self-respect, that was all. They were just jealous.) Angrily, the dragon tilted his head back to peer up at the clouds floating past in the sky.

A flock of mockingbirds flew past, laughing, and he scowled harder.

"Stop mocking me!"

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

It was an unfortunate fact of life that as a princess, Aqua was a failure. Far more interested in swords and adventure than tea parties and pretty dresses, Xehanort had long since given up any hope of his daughter ever behaving the part of a demure princess and simply allowed her to join all the young boys in their play fighting instead.

Nothing changed as she got older, though she gained a fascination for strange creatures. Dragons, a creature never seen in the kingdom before, were a particular favorite to the teenager. At some point, it became Aqua's life goal to meet a dragon.

She just never thought to specify _how_ she'd like to meet one.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Much could be said about choices and their consequences; for every choice made there was an equal, opposite choice _not_ made and the consequences therein of both.

In one universe, Vanitas chose to go left towards the mountains he called home and did not enter the forest that bordered the palace grounds. In this universe, he did not get ambushed by an irate knight who correctly followed his trajectory to its logical conclusion. He did not attempt an escape, only to have it botched by a bum wing and encounter a princess who had always wanted to meet a dragon; there was no kidnapping, or epic escape out of the forest with his hostage. Rather, he made it home in one piece, none the worse and life moved on. And in this universe, the Kingdom That Wasn't simply petered out, all because he did not kidnap a princess.

In another universe, Aqua did not skip out on lessons again to spend time practicing her animal tracking skills and did not meet an injured dragon on the run. She spent a few hours in lessons, then went on to have a terminally boring day. And the Kingdom That Wasn't again petered out, simply because Aqua learned to sew.

Neither of those universes were this universe however, and so those two small choices—made in the whim of the moment—caused an irrevocable change of fate. Vanitas chose to go right, into the bordering forest, and Aqua chose to skip sewing lessons and venture into the forest.

Two beings, two choices and one saved kingdom as a result of those choices.

* * *

Out of curiosity, anyone who reads this play Flight Rising? I'm breeding/selling Imperials and SkyDancers if you do. Also Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans~


End file.
